Sunday, 22 February 2015

I've decided to cover the Taunton barred numeral cancels next, which will take a while, starting with the three bar horizontal oval single cancels (3HOS). The first Taunton cancel was issued in 1844 and had three bars at the top and four at the bottom, though the fourth bar at the bottom no longer registered by December 1844.

Here's my earliest example, from September 1844, with the fourth bar at the bottom still showing.

Wednesday, 18 February 2015

A mixture of Skeletons, starting with Glastonbury from June to July 1911 - both these examples are from 13th June 1911.

Next a modern skeleton from Horsington, near Templecombe - this one was mispelt "HORSINGTON TEMPCELOMBE" in October to November 1974.

Then one from Watchet in June 1909.

And finally a lovely clear strike of the "WELLINGTON / * / S O" skeleton, known used on 14th & 15th April 1844. The "S O" is widely spaced. The skeleton was altered to "WELLINGTON / * / SOM" when it was used from 15th to the 26th April.

Sunday, 15 February 2015

The entire below is from Queen Camel to Castle Cary in January 1845, redirected back to Queen Camel, and among other things has a "QUEEN CAMEL" undated circular handstamp. Queen Camel is in the Post Office lists of 1844-1857 as Post Office number "703". According to Parmenter 1844-type Numeric Obliterator cancels are known from June 1844 to March 1847.

Next we have an example of the UDC from ROAD (aka Rode) from May 1859.

And then an undated circular handstamp for "WHIDDON CROSS", later known as Wheddon Cross, also showing a UDC for Dunster on the reverse.

Sunday, 8 February 2015

The Bristol Postal History Group is currently revising the early marks (as in the British County Catalogue) as part of its work on all the marks associated with Bristol. Here are some examples of early Bristol Marks, starting with the "B" with the date inside. There are believed to be 366 of these handstamps, one for every day in the year and are known used from 1697 to 1721.

These early handstamps are believed to have been carved in wood. As a result they wore out quickly and had to be replaced. This gives rise to a large number of similar but different handstamps, making the creation of a catalogue quite a difficult matter (no sooner do you have it finished than another new handstamp turns up). If you have an early mark then please do send me a scan !

Next there are some straight line handstamps from 1705 to 1734, all rare, unfortunately none of which I have copies of.

Then there are large "B"s with lower case "ris" and "tol" in the loops from 1736 to 1741.

Then large "B"s with upper case "RIS" and "TOL" in the loops from 1747 to 1772.

Skipping over more handstamps that I don't have we move to more straight line "BRISTOL" handstamps from 1773 to 1798, one of which is here.

Wednesday, 4 February 2015

The wrapper below was sent from Crewkerne to New York in July 1864, to be collected from the Post Office there [It is addressed to Wm. Henry Smith, no relation, presumably to W.H. Smith.]

The 1/- stamp is cancelled with the Crewkerne "230" 3HOS cancel, and has a handstamp from Crewkerne on the reverse along with a red London transit mark. The envelope says in manuscript "Per Mail from Liverpool" but there is no indication that it went from Liverpool rather than from London.

The envelope received a red "5 / CENTS" handstamp, probably applied in in the port where the mail shipped from, along with the red "PAID" handstamp to indicate that there was nothing to pay on the letter. The 5c is the portion of the 1/- or 24c that was credited to the USA, 3c going to Great Britain for the inland mail and a further 16c going to the (in this case British) contract steamer across the Atlantic.

When in New York the post office advertised that the letter was waiting collection.

Sunday, 1 February 2015

There is an element of the alphabet in the order of these posts. A couple of items from Castle Cary, first an envelope to Bruton in 1870 with Castle Cary "949" 3HOS cancels, a "CASTLE CARY" single ring handstamp, a "BATH" single ring transit mark and a "BRUTON" single ring receiving mark.

Secondly a "CASTLE CARY / SOMERSET" skeleton cancel from March 1910. The image of the postcard below shows Fore Street, Castle Cary from about the period when the postcard above was sent.